I. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns automated bottling equipment. More specifically, the present invention relates to equipment used to orient container caps so the caps may be automatically coupled to a container after the container is filled.
II. Related Art
Millions of containers, and more specifically bottles, are filled each day with water, soda, other beverages, other liquids, gases and other fluidic materials such as powders. Such bottles are typically sealed, after being filled, with a cap. This, of course, requires the cap be properly oriented and then coupled to the container.
Most bottling operations are already automated. However, there currently exists a real problem in orienting bottle and other container caps so the capping equipment can automatically apply a cap to the container to seal the container. Specifically, if a cap enters the capping station upside down or even at some other unacceptable angle, the automated equipment is incapable of coupling the cap to a bottle. This results in unsuccessful capping of bottles and, often, jamming of the bottling and capping equipment. Thus, there is a real need for a cap alignment mechanism that makes certain that every cap entering the capping station is correctly aligned for application to a container to be sealed.